According to Sandisk’s tech help, the internal lithium polymer battery/s in the Sansa fuze is non-replacable. Apparently you just kinda’ toss it when the battery quits holding a charge! This bothers me, that an expensive high-tech device like this with 8 GB of memory has to be thrown away as a result of a dead battery. I suppose Sandisk figures that in a couple of years or so, most users are tired of it, or that its technology will be so antiquated that nobody will care. It’s sad that we look at a device like this as “disposable”!
Your over reacting.
Your battery isn’t not gonna die anytime soon. I have had cellphones with the same non-replaceable batteries and they are still going strong. You are not impaired by this in anyway, shape, or form.
By the time this battery doesn’t work for you (because it wont hold a charge), you will be listening to mp3’s beamed directly into your head. With skateboards that float above ground (like in Back II the Future, so awesome)
yea what enigma said, but additionally, just cause they say you can’t do it doesn’t mean you can’t. With any engineer, mechanic, or lego enthusiast, you can easily take apart this and put it back together. With that said, you could replace the battery quite easily. of course by the time the battery is about to be used up, it may be just easier to chuck the thing (please recycle these appropriately!) and buy a crazy new device.
most electronic gadgets are in the assumption that most likely you’ll want to upgrade within a few years. Nothing is really ever made to last and even if it was made to last, most consumers will still have the urge to continue to upgrade. Cars are great examples of this. A new car can last 15+ years on its stock parts if maintained decently well, yet the average of someone buying a new car is every 3-5 years!
Totally agree, it’s unfortunate that the trend nowadays is to make players that die in 1-2 years, forcing users to keep repurchasing expensive players when the original player worked perfectly, aside from a dead/weak battery. It seems like the e200 series is the one to get if you want to use your music player beyond 2 years (when the battery will last ~20 minutes), but I only worry that when the e200 is eventually discontinued, replacement batteries might no longer be available?
I’m not even sure where you get replacement batteries prime-officially for e200. its not like their offered for sale separately at bestbuy or anything. =P
thoma wrote:
I’m not even sure where you get replacement batteries prime-officially for e200. its not like their offered for sale separately at bestbuy or anything. =P
its on the SanDisk website. I would do a google search, but I already started typing this message and dont feel like clicking over. Although, typing this messaeg is probably more effort than click over. O’ well. The world has me cornered again.
P.S
I’ve had my e200 for close to 2 years, and it still plays for 13-14 hours, no problems.
Your battery problems are solved.
yea they exist online . . . but not in store.
I dont know why Sandisk is having a trends of having high end mp3 player with none replacable battery. If you look at Sansa View, Sansa Connect and now Sansa Fuze, all these player are high end with non replacable battery. Also i notice that all these player have their headphone jack on the bottom. I hate this design. I put my player in my jean pocket, i got to make sure that my headphone is carefully place, or else it will bend and will break. I like the E200 serie better, the headphone jack is on top…
technically the headphone jack on the bottom makes for a better design if it is to be used within the pocket (IMO). Your hands are natuarally upside down when you reach in your pocket, and so if you want to control your device within your pocket than the orientation is already set (screen away from palm, buttons close to thumb), that’s if you put your mp3 player in upsidedown
As for high end mp3 players and removable batteries, the reason for these designs is to get the devices as thin as possible. But its not that hard to open up your player, I opened up my Fuze, and its quite amazing how its all pieced together.
As for sandisk having trends going towards high end mp3 players, you can blame apple for setting those trends. =)
Message Edited by thoma on 04-14-2008 11:46 AM
Wow, I’d like to see a picture of its innards. I don’t know if you can post an image here or not though?
yea, dunno if the forum would let me =P I could be breaking some kind of rule.
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2008/03/sandisk-sansa-fuze-disassembly.php
AnythingButIPod already tore one apart. :)
I dont have a problem with these pictures being posted. Feel free to do so. Should I be told otherwise, it will be addressed from there.
How do you open the Fuze?
-e@
very . . .carefully . . hmm its been a while. I don’t quite remmeber, but you should be able to carefully pry it open with some tools. best place to start the prying is between the headphone port and data connection.
The Fuze battery is not offered for sale, its internally wired and soldered to the PCB without a connector. This is what non-replaceble means.
The batteries that are for sale are replaceable for E200 and C200 series. If you are tech savvy of course you can do just about anything you want, including prying things open and soldering wires, etc.
Honestly, concerning the whole “you’ll probably want something else in 3-4 yrs.” well… honestly no lol. The Fuze has literally everything i could ever want with a music player and more. Firmware updates and techs like Rockbox should keep me with this player for years, if i could work with the battery boundary, im set forever potentially with this player lol. I’ve had a particular minidisc player for about 9yrs, its just how i am lol. I dont want to look for another player, i dont even want to care for another one. I want to keep my Fuze and be satisfied with that. But im thinking the battery issue isn’t as terrible as i think it is. Im sure with the right engineering, it can be replaced pronto ;). I have the pic of the Fuze’s internals, but can anyone point out where the hell the battery is lol? Thanks.
A lot of players don’t implicitly have replaceable batteries, but they can be taken apart and put back together relatively easily and the battery just connects via a small connector (not solder). As non-replaceable batteries go, the Fuze is the most non-user-replaceable I’ve seen. Given the dissasembly pictures & descriptions, I’d be surprised if we ever see replacement batteries.
But I was recently corrected that these are Lithium Polymer batteries (not Lithium Ion), so they should enjoy a lifespan of several years.
Message Edited by bdb on 06-05-2008 01:29 PM
Correct it is LiPolymer battery.
